Son Accused In Deadly Beating Believed Father Was Using Dark Magic Against Him

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL — New details emerged during the pre-trial detention hearing, as Alaa Edeen M. Qouqazeh, 27, appeared before Cook County Judge William N. Fahy on a first-degree murder charge.

Earlier in the week, 59-year-old Mohammad Qouqazeh was found dead in his apartment by a family member who went to check on his well-being after the younger Qouqazeh sent disturbing messages on WhatsApp, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said that the elder Qouqazeh was last seen alive by his wife, who is presently in Jordan, around 1:30 a.m. during a What’s App video call. Qouqazeh’s wife observed her husband and her son inside her husband’s apartment.

At approximately 4 a.m. Monday, the prosecutor said Mohammad's wife received a WhatsApp message from her son stating, “If I stay, I’m going to get hurt” and then another message, “they killed him.” After receiving these messages, she tried calling her husband and son to no avail.

She called and woke up her daughter and asked her to do a wellbeing check on her father. According to prosecutors, over the course of the next couple of hours, the wife received eleven messages from her son, eight of which he deleted. The last message she received from her son, stated “I was gonna get killed,” the prosecutor said.

When the daughter arrived around 4:30 a.m., she let herself into her father’s apartment with her key. She told police she found her father, cold and stiff, lying on his back unresponsive on the couch. His face was bloody, and he had lacerations on his face. She called 911, the prosecutor said.

Mohammad Qouqazeh was pronounced dead at 4:53 a.m., the apparent victim of multiple injuries due to an assault, including blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest. The Cook County Medical Examiner determined the death to be a homicide.

Police learned that the younger Qouqazeh had lived with his father until October, when he moved into a cellular phone store his father owned in Chicago. The daughter provided police with her brother’s address, phone number, and model and make of his white Nissan.

Police located Qouqazeh’s Nissan parked behind the cellular store.

Between 12:31 and 2:26 a.m., the prosecutor said that Qouqazeh appeared in security video leaving the cellular phone store wearing a red Chicago Blackhawks jacket and entering his father’s red Jeep. Plate readers tracked Qouqazeh’s vehicle driving to his father’s apartment. At 2:26 a.m., the prosecutor said motion activated security cameras from the apartment complex captured Qouqazeh leaving his father’s residence wearing different clothes and carrying a white plastic garbage bag with a bandaged hand.

Qouqazeh entered his white Nissan, where several license plate readers tracked his journey back to the cellular phone store, when the prosecutor said security video captured the Nissan parking behind the store. A few minutes later, the prosecutor said Qouqazeh was seen walking away from the car carrying the white garbage bag.

Later in the afternoon, Chicago Ridge police executed a search warrant at the store, recovering the white garbage bag filled with bloody clothing, including the Blackhawks jacket, the prosecutor said. Qouqazeh was taken into custody.

While at the Chicago Ridge police station, Qouqazeh allegedly told detectives he was afraid of his father because he was using dark magic, poisoning him, and causing him to hear voices. He had been barricading himself in the store and checking on his father at night for his mother, the prosecutor said.

On the night of the attack, police said Qouqazeh went to his father’s apartment, and believed he was acting in threatening ways. According to police, Qouqazeh said his father was banging plates, whispering harmful messages and running water in a way that formed words, when his father reached toward a poker in the couch.

Believing his father was about to stab him, the prosecutor said Qouqazeh put his father in a headlock, and his bit his son. Qouqazeh is accused of sitting on his father’s stomach and hitting him repeatedly in the forehead.

After the struggle, Qouqazeh stated he changed out of his bloody clothes, put some items in a bag, and exited the apartment, leaving his Blackhawks jacket, before returning to the store to shower, the prosecutor said.

Throughout the interview, police said that Qouqazeh repeated that he believed he was in danger and that voices and visions had been affecting him for months. Qouqazeh is also alleged to have identified the bloody clothes in the garbage bag as being his.

His sister reported to police that her brother’s mental health condition had been deteriorating since October. When he moved out of their father’s apartment, her brother told her that he believed both of their lives were in danger, the prosecutor said.

Qouqazeh’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, said he wasn’t going to argue for pretrial release since the allegation was a detainable offense. He asked that Qouqazeh be placed in Cermak Hospital.

The judge agreed to sign the order and said he hoped Qouqazeh would get the help he needs. Except for traffic offenses, Qouqazeh has no prior criminal background.

Qouqazeh is due back in court Jan. 8 at the Bridgeview Courthouse.